What do we value in art and in life?
I have discussed previously the growing trend for bricolage/accidental collage. This has been there since Paolozzi first started making pop art images with the Independent Group in the 40s, but seems to, in my opinion, have proliferated in the last few years. Tariq Alvi’s work is testimony to this proliferation as he uses the composite medium to explore sexual and cultural value systems. In a recent Frieze article entitled ‘Cut it Out’ Alvi is described as a ‘post-identity artist’ - ‘problematizing the traps of illustration, pigeon-holing and ghetto-ization.’ I like his titles! ‘The Nature of Price’, ‘The Joy of Price’ referencing iconic books from the 60s (The Joy of Sex) This reference to the revolutionary, liberating message suggests a flip side to the generation of hope as it turned into a generation of cynicism. In this article Dominic Eichler ends with by linking this act of cutting and tearing to the methods of getting over something (or someone). It being a form of closure from a situation. ‘Injuring the things that have insulted us.’ Perhaps now that we are all down with technology, make our own films/websites/worlds from our bedroom, the art of gashing and cutting is more representative of the results of the technological overload on a post-industrial society.

http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/tariq_alvi/